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As one of our over 5.7 million FreedomWorks activists nationwide, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to vote NO on S. Amdt. 4787 offered by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to the Senate version of the Commerce, Justice, Science spending bill. This amendment would greatly expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) surveillance powers, giving the agency the ability to collect sensitive, personal information about American citizens’ online activities.

Following the vote in the House of Representatives on an amendment sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) to end unlawful surveillance of Americans through Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, FreedomWorks Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Wayne Brough commented:

The fight over NSA surveillance is about to heat up again. This week, the House will consider a measure that would require the NSA and other government agencies to follow due process and obtain a warrant to collect the communications of American citizens. Through an amendment to H.R. 5293, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2017, the House could defund warrantless government searches of the database of information collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

As one of our over 5.7 million FreedomWorks activists nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask them to vote YES on the Rep. Massie (R-Ky.), Lofgren (D-Calif.), and Poe (R-Texas) amendment to H.R. 5293, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2017, if the amendment is allowed to be debated on the House floor. The amendment would require the NSA and other intelligence agencies to follow due process and obtain a warrant to collect the communications of American citizens. We urge the House Rules Committee to make this important amendment in order so it can be debated and voted on by the House. If the amendment is made in order, it is expected to be considered in the House this week.

This week, the House will consider a bill that would stop the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from collecting identifying information about donors to tax-exempt organizations. The IRS, in repeatedly using tax disclosures to create political targets, has prompted a chilling effect on First Amendment rights and political free speech.

Back in the 1980s, everyone was walking around with their perms and mullets, Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson were playing sold out concerts, and people still couldn’t believe that Darth Vader was Luke’s father (spoilers). Clearly, things have changed a lot since then, yet, curiously, privacy standards regarding emails have not. While email certainly wasn’t a dominant form of communication back in the 80’s, the computer revolution that our society has undergone makes online data and information more valuable than ever. It’s time for our privacy standards, then, to reflect the new and ever-more-digitized world we live in.